Instruction Centre
Topic | Traditional approach | Alternate approaches |
---|---|---|
Person | Teacher-centred instruction:
|
Student-centred instruction:
|
Classroom | Students matched by age, and possibly also by ability. All students in a classroom are taught the same material. | Students dynamically grouped by interest or ability for each project or subject, with the possibility of different groups each hour of the day. Multi-age classrooms or open classrooms. |
Teaching methods | Traditional education emphasizes:
|
Progressive education emphasizes:
|
Materials | Instruction based on textbooks, lectures, and individual written assignments | Project-based instruction using any available resource including Internet, library and outside experts |
Subjects | Individual, independent subjects.
Little connection between topics |
Integrated, interdisciplinary subjects or theme-based units, such as reading a story about cooking a meal and calculating the cost of the food. |
Social aspects | Little or no attention to social development.
Focus on independent learning. Socializing largely discouraged except for extracurricular activities and teamwork-based projects. |
Significant attention to social development, including teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and self-awareness. |
Multiple tracks |
|
Students choose (or are steered towards) different kinds of classes according to their perceived abilities or career plans. Decisions made early in education may preclude changes later, as a student on a vo-tech track may not have completed necessary prerequisite classes to switch to a university-preparation program. |
Student and teacher relationship | Students often address teachers formally by their last names. The teacher is considered a respected role model in the community. Students should obey the teacher. Proper behavior for the university or professional work community is emphasized. | In alternative schools, students may be allowed to call teachers by their first names. Students and teachers may work together as collaborators. |
Read more about this topic: Traditional Education
Famous quotes containing the words instruction and/or centre:
“Casting an eye on the education of children, from whence I can make a judgment of my own, I observe they are instructed in religious matters before they can reason about them, and consequently that all such instruction is nothing else but filling the tender mind of a child with prejudices.”
—George Berkeley (16851753)
“St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)